The Collaborative Problem Solving (CPST) Model is a model created by Dr. James Ablon. This training has been implemented on the Behavioral Health and Welfare Program’s Comprehensive Assessment and Treatment Unit (CATU) Hospital unit. All staff have received tier I training in the CPST model. The training model can also be used for residential units throughout the state.

TIER I TRAINING: COLLABORATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING

Focusing on:

Providing an in-depth exposure to both the assessment and intervention components of the model.

The Applied Services Research and Evaluation Program (ASREP) assists DCFS and its provider agencies in developing continuous quality improvement (CQI) initiatives and data-based managerial tools for use in service monitoring, service capacity planning and performance-based provider contracting. The ASREP works directly with DCFS and the other BHWP programs to identify, collect and utilize data concerning the problems and needs of wards with serious emotional and behavioral disorders; the mental health, placement and social services these wards receive; and the clinical outcomes of those services. Specific projects include:

The Psychiatric Hospital Project. The ASREP developed an information system to track hospitalized wards and to prepare progress reports pertaining to the requirements of the BH consent decree. This database has been instrumental in reducing hospitalizations that were longer than necessary due to the lack of an appropriate placement for the child.

The Mental Health Policy Program (MHPP) was designed to review the quality of care provided by group homes, residential treatment centers, and psychiatric hospitals serving foster children and to provide technical assistance and consultation, including training and continuing education opportunities, to community agencies that have encountered difficulties working with high-risk populations of DCFS wards or are seeking to enhance the clinical and professional skill-set of their staff. Services provided to community agencies include:

An extensive program evaluation including an assessment of the treatment model, delivery of clinical services, the physical plant and the adequacy of staffing,

Conducting training programs for managerial staff and board of directors,

Designing and helping implement a corrective action plan to address programmatic deficiencies identified in the program evaluation including technical assistance, consultation, and staff training aimed at helping the program develop a more effective model of care, and

The Clinical Services in Psychopharmacology Program (CSP) provides an independent medication review of psychotropic medication consent requests submitted by care providers who wish to prescribe psychotropic medications to foster children. Designed to ensure the safety and appropriateness of psychotropic medication for foster children, the CSP monitors the use of psychotropic medications in this population. The CSP reviews approximately 13,000 psychotropic medication consent requests annually. In addition to reviewing medication requests, the Clinical Services in Psychopharmacology:

provides consultation to the DCFS Guardian on particularly challenging youth;

notifies the DCFS Office of the Guardian and Advocacy when local and/or providerpatterns warrant further review and possible remediation;

disseminates information on new pharmaceutical developments and alerts to prescribing physicians who serve DCFS wards;

drafts materials and reviews and comments on DCFS-developed best practice guidelines and administrative rules and procedures governing the management of psychotropic drugs; and

develops training materials and conducts training for foster parents, other care providers, and DCFS-identified staff in management of psychotropic medications.

In the late 1980s and the early 1990s the Department of Children and Family Services faced legal challenges, including a class action lawsuit, from federal investigators, advocates for children, and the American Civil Liberties Union alleging inadequate and poor quality mental health services for youth in its custody. These challenges were settled through a consent decree in which DCFS agreed to initiate major reforms in the state child welfare system. As part of the consent decree, the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Department of Psychiatry was identified by both DCFS and the plaintiffs as an “independent expert” to help implement the system change efforts, and an innovative collaboration was crafted between UIC and DCFS. Since 1993, DCFS officials and UIC faculty and staff have been working together to improve clinical outcomes for foster children with psychiatric and behavioral disorders resulting in the formation of the Behavioral Health and Welfare Program. The Behavioral Health and Welfare Program consists of four separate projects with distinct but inter-related deliverables.